Professional news

Because we Latvians eat so many potatoes, why not celebrate the potato harvest?  Country Traveller has joined with the Latvian Association of Potato Growers and Processors and the Kalnciema Street Block to organize a Potato Festival!

The County Traveller information tent will be an embassy for the countryside.  Here you will be able to find the best places to find the widest variety of countryside goodies, from potatoes to grapes. The Putni folklore group will bring music to the celebration, and later the women of Rucava will demonstrate their song skills.  After that, potato growers will take the stage to share in their wisdom – which types of potatoes are best for crispy potato pancakes, which ones are most productive, which ones are in the greatest demand, which ones should be bought, which ones should be planted, etc. Ēriks Dreibants from the Trīs Pavāru Restaurant will offer a master’s class on using modern recipes to cook potatoes. Sandra Aigara from the “Zvanītāji” traditions centre and the women from Rucava will get busy with traditional dishes such as Kurzeme soured soup, potato packets with creamy bacon sauce, and crispy potato pancakes with bacon. You will learn many interesting facts about potatoes. There will be potato relay races and competitions. 

Festival programme here.

Media information here.

To promote countryside travelling and to give a presentation of what a visitor would experience and enjoy in the countryside we have produced 7 new videos http://www.celotajs.lv/cont/about/video_en.html. Each one is about half a minute story about a particular topic: seasons of a year, open farms and craft shops, Latvian symbols, etc. The videos are presented in our web site, social networks, and they will be demonstrated in rural tourism promotional events.

Latvijas lauku tūrisma asociācija “Lauku ceļotājs” uzsākusi darbu pie bukleta "Lauku labumi" - tajā tiks apkopota informācija par lauku saimniecībām, kas atvērtas apmeklētājiem/tūristiem un piedāvā ekskursiju pa saimniecību, nogaršot un/vai iegādāties saražotos lauku labumus, izmēģināt amatu prasmes u.c.

On 5th June in Brussels, the president of the Latvian Countryside Association "Lauku Celotājs", Asnāte Ziemele received an award Best Life-Environment Project for POLPROP-NATURA  project in EU LIFE programme. The project took place in the SlītereNational Park as a demo territory from 2009-2012. "Lauku Ceļotājs" executed the project together with the people and organizations of Slītere. The sustainable tourism development model was created by attracting local entrepreneurs, inhabitants, local authorities and administration of SlītereNational Park. This experience was used for making proposals for environmental protection and tourism development policy. 

Vēl līdz 31. janvārim var pieteikties dalībai "Balttour" forumā, kas no 6. līdz 9. februārim Rīgā pulcēs simtiem pārstāvju no Baltijas un NVS valstu tūrisma uzņēmumiem, valstu pārstāvniecībām un profesionālajām organizācijām.

"Balttour forums. NVS valstu fokuss" ir biznesa forums Baltijas un NVS valstu tūrisma profesionāļiem, kas aktivizē tūrisma pakalpojumu apmaiņu reģionā, nodrošinot efektīvu pārdošanas un pirkšanas platformu, organizējot tūrisma profesionāļu diskusijas un piedāvājot neformālus pasākumus kontaktu veidošanai. Foruma programmu skatiet šeit.

„Lauku ceļotājs” participate in Project „AcTour: Active Tourism for Sustainable Development” where partners from Spain, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Latvia intends to transfer an innovative, tchnology-enhanced and job-related Training Guide and Curriculum on Active Tourism as a new professional profile for European rural regions. Project results will be available here http://www.activetourism.org/

Open AcTour project page in a new window

The  4th European Congress on Rural Tourism, organised jointly by EuroGites and our Romanian partners of ANTREC, is now officially launched to take place in Romania, October 7-10, 2012. Detailed programme here. Follow program updates in the congress web site: www.europeanrtcongress.org 

Please fill in a questionnaire and help us to create a new rural tourism product oriented on local heritage and people. The respondents will take part in the lottery. The main award is gift card of EUR 500 for the accommodation in the Baltic States. Questionnaire "Local heritae in rural tourism" is in English, German and Russian here

Our Spring Newsletter see here.

 In this issue:

• Special spring experience

• New packages for the next summer season:
• Along the Baltic national parks - Latvia & Lithuania
• Canoeing in Kurzeme
• Spring Birdwatching in Latvia
• Countrylife of Eastern part of Latvia & Lithuania
• Info on our publications and clients' feedback
• Accomodation info

Мы будем ITB Berlin от 7 - 11 марта, Зал 18, стенд Латвии №: 126A. Мы будем рады встретиться с Вами! Добро пожаловать в стенд !

Если вы хотите заранее договориться о встрече,пишите: inese@celotajs.lv